On March 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., denied the request of the U.S. Postal Service for summary judgment in Initiative & Referendum Institute v U.S. Postal Service, 10-5337. This does not mean the case has been won. But it does mean that a 3-judge panel will consider the evidence in the case, in the near future. The court today merely issued a one-sentence order, denying the government’s request for summary judgment.
The three judges who signed the order are Karen Henderson (a Bush Sr. appointee), Merrick Garland (a Clinton appointee), and Brett Kavanaugh (a Bush Jr. appointee). Judges Henderson and Garland already participated in this case earlier, when the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that postal sidewalks parallel to the street must permit petitioning. At that time, they sent the part of the case about interior sidewalks back to the U.S. District Court Judge. The third judge on the recent panel, Judge Kavanaugh, is new to this case. However, he was part of the 2010 panel that struck down another regulation that outlawed passing out leaflets in all parts of all national parks. That case was Boardley v U.S. Dept. of the Interior.
